Monthly Archives: February 2011

On Sunday morning I woke up at 5am to the sound of the snowplow going by, which was a surprise because I didn’t know we were expecting snow. It snowed all morning long, and it was light and fluffy stuff. However I had some more important stuff to tend to before I could go for another ride. I didn’t get up to my local playground until about 3pm. When I pulled into the lot there were 2 others ready to go up as well. We all climbed up together on my summit express skinning route. As we climbed higher and higher there was more and more fresh snow, and it was all beautiful low density dry powder (Utah Style). At the summit there was nearly a foot of new snow compared to the 6” at my house a few miles away. Snow conditions today were the best I’ve seen yet this year, and some of the best I’ve ever seen here.
I had my camera on the wrong setting so most of my shots didn’t come out great, but here is a few

The only picture of me I got, and the camera decided to focus on the tree instead .
I shared a few secret stashes with a few new friends and enjoyed the powder while it was here. But the ephemeral nature of powder reared its ugly head way too fast and freezing rain moved in last night and turned it all into a mankey mess .

I got to make a few turns both days this past weekend.
Saturday I skinned up Temple Mountain Lost Ski Area for a quick fix while visiting some family in the area
This was my home hill when I was younger but It’s getting so over grown now
I skinned up on my splitboard and had a brew at the top before taking a ride down
On the climb up there was a breakable crust with a couple inches of powder on top so I wasn’t sure how good the descent would be. On the way down it was better than I expected, there was just enough powder to float me if I kept my speed and edged lightly

Last summer they harvested a tree farm on South Mountain and now there is about 600 vertical feet of very open terrain available. There was a lot of slash left lying around by the loggers so I needed a good consolidated base before I could go enjoy it without getting snagged by the snow snakes. After last week’s freeze thaw cycle the base is now nice and firm and supportable. Sunday nights forecast of 3-5inches got me excited to check out this new terrain, but Monday morning I only woke up to about an 1inch of new powder. After going back to bed and then going to visit Emily at Republic I went for a little tour on the “Dust on Crust” conditions.
Near the top of the hill I found a hunters tree stand. I would like to come up here some morning and try to get some good wildlife pics
I shot a little vid to show the terrain a little:

Then I made some turns
I lapped the hill 3 times before heading over to the other side of town to try skiing down a steep cliff area on a power line easement that I drive by everyday, I forgot to take the camera for this part of the adventure but it’s probably just as well cause I ate crap pretty hard when my skis broke through the thick crust while I was making the transition from the steep section to the flat.

Locally we received about of a foot of fresh snow this week. Fortunately the precipitation stayed frozen for the duration of the storm, the rain snow line got pretty close to So NH but we only got a little dry sleet near the end of the storm. The mountain had considerably more accumulation than my house, the deep dense maritime style powder made low angle stuff turn my snowboard into a submarine. But the steeper stuff was a ton of fun. We have such a deep base now that rocks are no longer an issue anywhere on the mountain. Heres a few shots and vid clips Jeremy and I got while up there. I was field testing a flip video camera for this TR and realized afterwards I don’t have an editing program that supports mp4 video format. So I wasnt able to turn this footage into a edit product 🙁
Clips:

This last one I had to include. Its of Emily out playing in the snow. She’s adorable